


Deeper Understandings

by pherryt



Series: Star Trek Bingo [6]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek AOS
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Feeling Out of Place, Tarsus IV, Understanding, and he theirs, mention of trauma related eating disorder, the crew has the captains back
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 05:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17237957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pherryt/pseuds/pherryt
Summary: Jaylah felt out of place on the Enterprise, despite how often she'd wished for company - family and friends - during her time on Altamid. Her friendship with Scotty helped, but so did the strange understanding that she and James T. seemed to have.But it wasn't until she talked with Montgomery Scotty about the captain that she understood where that understanding came from.





	Deeper Understandings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [feathers_and_cigarettes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/feathers_and_cigarettes/gifts).



> This is for another square for the Star Trek Boldly Bingo - this was picked by Feathers-and-Cigarettes randomly
> 
> Square to fill: Tarsus with Scotty and Jaylah as the focus (Friendship, not a Ship) and BOY HOWDY was that HARD! Trying to write a fic about TARSUS which is primarily Kirk -centric without him becoming a focus of the story?

Jaylah had seen a lot in her short life. A lot of death and loss. She’d learned how to survive and she’d learned how to be alone, and she’d hated every moment of it. The day the Enterprise had crashed on Altamid had changed her life. She would never have believed it but here she was, making new friends at last.

Maybe even new family.

And yet, even with all these new people who were becoming her friends and family, Jaylah found herself feeling a little lonely and sometimes, walking the corridors of the Enterprise was absolutely overwhelming.

How could she feel so lonely, so out of place amidst a crowd of so many different and diverse peoples?

Everything she’d been dreaming of for years and now she was… was so ungrateful for it all.

She sat beside Keenser, fiddling with a piece of tech he’d handed her while Scotty racketed about his beloved engineering room.

It was clean and large and fancy and she sighed.

She missed her Franklin.

Tossing the tech back at Keenser, she hopped down and headed for the door.

“Hey, lassie, where are ye going?”

“For a walk, Montgomery Scotty,” she said.

“Are ye all right?”

“I’ll be fine, Montgomery Scotty. It’s just a walk,” she insisted.

Scotty’s eyes went up and he shrugged. “All right, lass, if ye say so.”

“Thank you,” she said, rolling her eyes, escaping the suddenly suffocating room.

Wandering about the ship for hours, not yet being officially on the crew, Jaylah eventually found herself in one of the more distant rec rooms, one of the ones with the view of the sky. She hit the replicator, telling the computer to surprise her – it was still so strange to her – grabbed the food and went over to the hull, perching on a table as she ate, staring at the passing streaks of stars.

“It’s peaceful here, isn’t it?” she heard behind her.

“It is, James T.,” she said with a hum. “I miss my beats and shouting, though.”

He chuckled and settled beside her on the table, a plate of food in his own hands. “Computer, play the captains playlist.”

Seconds later, the familiar beats of one of her favorite songs flooded the room. They sat in a companionable silence, aside from the loud music, and for the first time in a while despite the unfamiliarity of the large but crowded starship, Jaylah relaxed.

The late-night walks became a regular thing, and whenever she encountered the captain, he always seemed to have food in his hands – even when he was on duty.

“Montgomery Scotty, is that normal for humans? To eat that much?”

Scotty looked up at her, confused. “How do ye mean, lassie? Ye callin’ me fat?” he shook his head at her. “An’ here I thought we were friends.”

“We are friends. And I did not call you fat.” She paused, looking up from her latest project. “I was talking about James T.”

“Oh…” Scotty said softly. “Ah lass, it ain’t my tale to tell, and yet… it’s pretty public knowledge if ye know where to look.”

“Where to look?” She set the project aside and hopped down from the railing she’d perched on.

“Aye.” Scotty stared at her thoughtfully, then turned away, dragging over a data pad and tapping on it. He handed it to her with a solemn look.

Though the data pad was light, it felt incredibly heavy when she took it from his hands. She settled back against the rail, leaning this time instead of perching, and scanned the articles he’d pulled up. The picture formed pretty quickly, and she realized, suddenly, why she’d connected so easily and quickly to James T.

He wasn’t her friend the same way her and Montgomery Scotty were, and yet an understanding had passed between them. As she read about Tarsus IV and Governor Kodos and the starving population and the thousands of people he’d killed as a so-called mercy, she realized why.

They’d both been through horrific things at such young ages.

And they’d both survived.

Suddenly, the captains near continuous habit of eating made sense. There were plenty of lean times in Jaylah’s life as first a prisoner, and then a lone scavenger.

The more she read, the more she realized, the heavier both her heart and the data pad felt. She finished, handing it back while blinking tears back from her eyes.

“That is _horrible_ , Montgomery Scotty,” she said quietly.

“Aye, it is. The Captain has had and led a hard life, in more ways then one,” Scotty said seriously. “But ye gotta hand it to him – he never gives up and almost always comes out on top.”

Taking the data pad, Scotty cleared the screen and looked back at Jaylah earnestly. “We’re very lucky to have him as a Captain, I’ll tell ye. He understands a lot more than most people do, and it makes for a very caring captain, even when he’s being stupid. Because he _listens,_ and he goes right to bat for us. Which is why this crew fights so bloody hard to do their best for him. It’s why _this_ crew, of all the crews I’ve ever had the pleasure to serve with, is the closest knit that I have ever seen.”

“And everybody knows about this?” Jaylah waved at the now blank pad.

“Aye, for the most part,” Scotty said with another shrug. “With his parents being who they were, Captain Kirk has not had much of a private life, which, I’m sure that was bloody hell growin’ up, with those shoes to fill, but!” he waved his finger about vaguely, “As he protects us, we protect our own. He’s family now, like ye. He’s adopted ye, an’ so have I.”

“And me,” Keenser piped up, surprising them both as he crawled out from under a console.

“Shut it. I adopted her first. Then the captain. _Then_ ye,” Scotty said, rolling his eyes at another of his charges that had long since become both coworker and friend. Jaylah saw it was filled with fondness and Keenser just stared, unphased by Scotty’s behavior.

“Family, then,” she mused aloud. “Yes. James T. is Jaylah’s family. As are you, Montgomery Scotty, and you, Keenser, and all the rest of the Enterprise crew. But Montgomery Scotty, I have a question – what happened to Kodos?”

Scotty looked at her sadly. “Nobody knows, lassie. He’s still out there, in the black. As ye well know, space is big and easy to hide in.”

“So,” she said, stretching herself to stand upright, “then we needs must protect our family from this Kodos, this enemy of James T. and the Federation.”

“Well… I wouldna go _that_ far. Don’t think there’s much likelihood of him ever popping up again. But aye, should the occasion arise, than that’s what we shall do. In the meantime,” he tapped his nose. “I wouldna mention Tarsus, if I were ye. And, treat him like ye would any other captain, yeah? Keeps him feeling humble and normal. Think ye can do that?”

“So… just like I have been, then?” she raised an eyebrow at Scotty.

“Exactly,” Scotty said, beaming at her proudly. “Looks like I have taught ye well.”

Keenser and Jaylah’s eyes met and then rolled in unison.

“Of course, Montgomery Scotty.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Rebloggable Tumblr Post [here](https://pherryt.tumblr.com/post/181574905861/deeper-understandings-star-trek-aos-canon)


End file.
